The current paper document-processing environment is heavily dependent upon paper processing, which can be inefficient. What is needed is a distributed electronic paper document capture, storage, and process system to alleviate or otherwise mitigate the dependence upon paper form of items such as personal and business checks. The scanning of paper documents is one solution for obtaining electronic images and data to represent the original paper documents, however the use and applicability of scanners as imaging devices is not always suitable in all circumstances. Cameras are another device that can be used for document imaging, however there are potential image errors and physical location considerations introduced by camera usage that are not compatible with traditional fixed location scanners, including expected image quality.
In the prior art, fixed location deposit devices are used to record and submit scan data associated with imaged documents to a central processing system. However, this arrangement can have some disadvantages, since fixed location deposit devices are not flexible for today's mobile workforce.
Further, there can be security concerns. Under “Check 21”, images of checks are, in general, usable in the same way that an originally executed check may be used. The security concerns regarding the current state of the art processing data collection and processing systems arise because it is conceivable that an unauthorized third party may access a significant amount of image data relating to checks, which has been collected/processed at a particular local computer, when the collected data is submitted to the central processing system. These security concerns can increase in mobile data collection environments.
A further problem is in efficient management of the system when it includes a plurality of client systems (for uploading the items) and one of more respective host systems (for processing the items to assign a respective settlement path) in the environment of multiple customers of the system, all with their own settlement and item processing needs. It can become problematic for the centralized system to accommodate the travel and work needs of today's mobile work force, as well as to coordinate potential bottlenecks in processing of electronic documents coming from a variety of sources through a central processing system.